We rented a disk to slide on the dunes. Kids at heart.
I will try to get the video of both of us sliding down the dunes tomorrow. Here are some pictures I took at the dunes.
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Sunrise was different at Sandhills.
The wind of sandhills. Today we moved to Monahans Sandhills State Park. The sand hills are big. Really BIG!
The park is 600 acres. There are 25 campsites but only 3 campers are here tonight. We walked around the park and up onto one of the taller dunes near our campsite. It was at least 60 feet tall. The sand is light tan, very fine and soft. It was hot during the day but as soon as the sun set it was cool to the touch. After sunset the near full moon reflected off the sand and everything was lit with moonlight. Everything gave a shadow from just moonlight. We made our move further west to Fort Stockton.
As expected we are in what we think of as real Texas. Few if any trees. Mesas in all directions in the distance. Flat. Really Flat. Looks like almost every western we have seen. Yes we have started listening to Louis L'Amour audio books. When we got setup the highest temperature was 100 degrees and the lowest humidity was 5! YES 5%! We could almost throw water in the air and it evaporate before it hit the ground. Both AC's are running to keep the inside temp below 79. Inside the humidity is 36%. Practically dripping compared to outside. We are only here for the night. Thank goodness. Glad we are here instead of Monahans where the winds are steady at 25 gusting to 37. It's a bit breezy up there. Today we hiked in the Llano River State Park. When we arrived at the park offices they had a half a dozen humming bird feeders along the porch. Hummingbirds were all over the place. They were camera shy. I was never able to get a good picture. I did get this one of a prickly pear cactus growing in a tree at the parking lot. The hike was over 4 miles and up over two rises. We had some pretty steep climbs. When we got back to the truck we were very tired. The high points were 1960 feet and 2000 feet. After a drive around the park to look at the camping areas we walked near the river and into the Turkey roost area. We did hear at least one gobbler. From early October to near the end of March the park has between 600 and 800 turkeys roosting.
Well Texas is serious about letting people move quickly down the interstate. Today we are in Junction Texas. The plan is to get up tomorrow and go to the Llano State park for hiking and hopefully see turkeys. The park has a large turkey roost area. We may bring our fishing poles. Texas allows free fishing in the state parks. Wish other states did.
These birds were all over. I thought they were great. Very unusual call too.
More pictures of the point. Flowers. More birds.
Down on the point we came across these huge patches of prickly pear cactus. Some of the leafs were larger than frying pans and over an inch thick. Most were not blooming yet but the ones that have were pretty. Look for the bee i caught coming in for a landing.
Then there were the deer. We counted 8.
Today we moved to Canyon Lake Texas and are camping at the Corps of Engineers campground. It is the first one we have camped. If this is any example we will be looking for more as we travel.
On our first day, we visited the historic site for the first Capital of Texas in 1828. Stephen Austin is considered the father of Texas and the capital is named in his honor. A new large museum is being constructed across the highway from the site.
We have enjoyed the day at the State Park. The Biking and Hiking trails are well maintained. We biked just over 2.5 miles and hiked and 1 mile. On the hike, we stood on the cliff side of the Brazos river.
The entire park was flooded less than a year ago, but they have recovered and restored almost all the trails. Knowing that the river came that far above the banks is amazing. Where we camped was under several feet of water during the flood.
I hope we will be able to watch fireflies again tonight. We made it through Houston. Arrrggg! I don't know if there is a good time to go through Houston. Drivers are really aggressive but we were almost in an accident because of an overly aggressive tow truck driver who shot across 4 lanes passing right in front of us to get to a car that was broken down. We were not the only one he almost hit. Here is a panoramic view from the door of the RV. Tonight we sat and watched fireflies blink on and off all around us while we listened to owls and some other night calling birds. It is really dark. We are far outside Houston so the night sky is filled with stars. Near by is the historical site of the first capital of Texas.
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January 2024
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